high reliability

HIGH RELIA BILITY
on the
Innovations in stimulation
vessel plant design and
stimulation fluid systems,
coupled with global
expertise and reliable
operations, have made
Baker Hughes a leader
for decades in the
offshore fracturing and
stimulation market.
Baker Hughes was the first service
company to design and deliver oceangoing
stimulation vessels and to receive
the stringent Well Stimulation Vessel
(WSV) classification in the Gulf of Mexico
and Brazil. Its latest vessels have huge
storage and pumping capacities, and
advanced instrumentation and control
systems, as well as redundant jobcritical
systems to reduce risks, costs and
nonproductive time.
To ensure its customers’ evolving needs
are met in increasingly challenging and
extreme offshore conditions, the company
continues to expand its technology
portfolio, including adding new vessels
to its fleet of modern, powerful,
dynamically positioned (DP2) offshore
stimulation vessels.
Currently, Baker Hughes operates six
vessels in the Gulf of Mexico, Brazil,
South Asia and West Africa. With an
average vessel age of 10 years, it is the
youngest fleet in the industry.
Multiple treatments, single
mobilization
A prime example of the direction the
fleet is heading is the addition of the
Blue Orca vessel to the North Sea. “The
Blue Orca is extremely large by global
standards. It’s designed to save time
and money for customers operating in
the North Sea by completing multiple
fracturing treatments in a single
mobilization and by keeping station in
some of the harshest weather conditions
imaginable,” explains Tony Martin,
director of Offshore Stimulation for
Baker Hughes.
The signing of a nonexclusive contract
with Maersk Olie og Gas for the Blue
Orca follows the launch of the Blue
Tarpon in June 2011 and the BJ Blue
Dolphin in January 2010. The sister
vessels were built to meet demand
for deepwater and for ultradeepwater
stimulation jobs in the Gulf of Mexico.
They are equipped for 24/7, high-rate,
high-volume multizone fracturing
operations in a single mobilization.
When the Blue Orca vessel mobilizes in
2013, it will expand the Baker Hughes
offshore pressure pumping business into
the North Sea market. Martin says its
capacity and systems will meet or beat
the best in the Baker Hughes fleet.
“The BJ Blue Dolphin is the only vessel in
the world rated to 20,000 psi (138 MPa)
maximum working pressure. The Blue
Orca will be rated to 15,000 psi (103
MPa), as is half our fleet,” Martin says.
“This means that our fleet is capable of
taking on some of the most demanding
stimulation treatments ever conceived.”
Huge storage capacity reduces expensive
trips to and from shore to restock
proppant and acid. The company’s three
vessels on contract with Petrobras in
Brazil must carry enough acid to treat
wells with total depth of about 6200
m (20,341 ft) through a thick salt layer,
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01> Full remote control and systems monitoring from the control
room of the BJ Blue Angel reduce safety risks and enable
secure, fast data transmission globally and wirelessly.
02> The Blue Tarpon, launched in June 2011, provides fracturing,
sand control, acidizing and pressure pumping with three
blenders offering maximum backup.
notes Luis Duque, Marketing and Engineering manager for Baker
Hughes in Latin America. Acid fracs and self-diverted acid
treatments are common for limestones in the pre-salt layer, while
post-salt sandstone layers require propped fracs and matrix
acid stimulation.
“The amount of acid must cover the whole horizontal section,”
Duque says. “Most of these wells are highly deviated and the
production section is as long as 2000 m [6,562 ft]. This is why we
recently upgraded the BJ Blue Shark with more acid capacity.”
High technology, enhanced reliability
All Baker Hughes vessels have strong DP2 systems with bow and
stern thrusters specifically designed to keep the vessel on station
in virtually any weather condition. Multiple layers of redundancy
ensure that a vessel will maintain position and remain within the
operating envelope.
01
02
“During treatments, the vessel pulls up alongside the platform
and connects to it with two large high-pressure hoses,” Duque
says. “While they’re connected, the vessel must remain on station.
We have an emergency disconnect system to use as a last resort
if the vessel has to move away from the installation.”
To assure operational reliability, job-critical systems in the
blending and mixing process, as well as the generating power to
run these systems, have full redundancy. Stimulation plant power
systems run independently from the marine power systems so that
pumping operations are not affected by the load on the dynamic
positioning system.
This full back-up, combined with Baker Hughes’ advanced
instrumentation and control systems, makes fracturing and
stimulation treatments reliable and easy to control.
“Pumps haven’t changed much over the years, but instrumentation
and controls are much more advanced now. We used to have a
wall of the control room covered with a process flow diagram,
switches and a panel of hundreds of valves that needed three
people to run,” Martin explains.
“Today, the controls look like something out of a science fiction
movie. They are remotely operated by a small number of people in
the control room and can even be operated from onshore. Operators
can configure and control everything using touch-sensitive screens.”
Baker Hughes was one of the first companies to develop remote
operation of high-pressure pumping equipment, which eliminates
the need for personnel to work directly with and around rotating
or high-pressure equipment under normal operations. “This
dramatically reduces the potential for safety-related incidents,”
Martin says.
In addition, Baker Hughes was the first to develop a modular,
temporary installation vessel design. The StimFORCE modular
stimulation system is a customized arrangement of skid-based
pumping equipment that can be shipped to a location and
reassembled on a platform supply vessel, barge or offshore rig.
It is designed to reduce costs with an on-demand stimulation
pumping solution.
In-house designed, engineered
Baker Hughes’ newest vessels are built on hulls as long as an
American football field. Alec Glennie, International Support
manager for Baker Hughes in Singapore, says the company
usually modifies a standard hull and uses well-established
engineering designs.
“All equipment, instrumentation and software are designed in-house to
provide customers with high quality and continuity. Most of the major
components are built in our Pressure Pumping facility in Tomball, Texas,”
Glennie says.
Tomball Group Leader Stan Bradford oversees the experienced engineers,
designers and draftsmen responsible for designing the vessel’s electrical,
hydraulic, pneumatic and process systems. The stimulation plant his team
designs will dominate the Blue Orca hull.
“We will use every square inch available,” Bradford confirms. “The
stimulation plant will house fracturing units, proppant and chemical injection
equipment, acid systems, piping, and pumps, as well as safety, hydraulic and
electrical systems. The equipment will weigh in at 500 to 700 metric tons
(551 to 772 tons) in an intelligent, efficient layout that makes plant
maintenance easier. It will be enclosed to protect the equipment and
personnel from the elements.”
In addition to the Tomball team, Baker Hughes will supervise engineering at
the shipyard during the Blue Orca’s construction, Bradford says, “We don’t
rely on third parties. That is how we ensure that the end product is what our
clients need.
“All our latest vessels also have WSV classification, which means they meet
the highest criteria available for dependability, quality and safety, every time.”
The vessels are class certified by internationally recognized classification
societies, and ISO 9000 certified for quality-management systems. They
comply with International Safety Management (ISM) Code to ensure safety
at sea, to prevent human injury or loss of life and to avoid damage to the
environment and to the vessel.
Designs keep pace with advancements in chemical processes, quality and
engineering, and increasing regulations, Glennie adds. The engines powering
the vessels and stimulation plants meet all current environmental standards
for reduction of pollutants such as oxides of nitrogen and sulphur, and
greenhouse gasses, particularly carbon dioxide. Material that cannot be
discharged is stored on board so it can later be disposed of correctly on shore.
The last five years have seen a sharp increase in offshore drilling activity,
especially in areas that have traditionally been significant stimulation markets,
such as the North Sea and Brazil. This has produced a corresponding increase
for demand in stimulation vessels, and this boom is expected to continue for
the foreseeable future. “While Baker Hughes has the youngest stimulation
fleet in the business, many of the industry’s vessels are aging and due for
retirement,” Martin says. “These two factors mean that demand for offshore
stimulation will probably outstrip supply in a couple of years without a
significant investment in infrastructure. Baker Hughes is already doing this
and is posed to lead the industry through the next decade.”
A Steady Presence in Rough Waters
Very large fracturing treatments and a harsh
working environment are driving the design of the
Blue Orca , the seventh offshore stimulation vessel in
the Baker Hughes fleet.
The company won the tender to design, build and
commission a new stimulation vessel and to supply
proppant fracturing, acid fracturing and matrix
acidizing services for Maersk Olie og Gas in the
Danish sector of the North Sea. Baker Hughes was
chosen based in part for its extensive experience
mobilizing and operating offshore fracturing
vessels, its experienced mechanical engineering and
instrumentation teams, and its successful ongoing
contracts with Maersk for completions, directional
drilling and wireline services.
To meet Maersk’s requirements, the Blue Orca will
be one of the highest-capacity vessels in the world.
Baker Hughes Offshore Stimulation Director Tony
Martin explains that the operating conditions in the
North Sea demand a lot of raw material storage and
pumping capacity to do multiple treatments without
returning to port.
“The Blue Orca will have above-deck storage for 1
million pounds of material for use on the job, the
largest proppant capacity in the fleet. Hydrochloric
acid capacity of 190,000 gallons will equal that of
our largest vessels,” Martin says. “Also, there will be
bulk tank storage for an additional 1.4 million pounds
below decks. At 15,000 HHP, the Blue Orca’s hydraulic
horsepower will rank third in the fleet.”
At 311 ft (95 m), the purpose-built hull is under
construction at an Edison Chouest shipyard in
Louisiana. It will have extra structural strength to
support the stimulation plant and materials, says
Singapore International Support Manager Alec
Glennie. “It will need a robust ballast system because
we will be pumping at high rates at sea and must
be able to counter the movement of the center of
gravity,” he says.
Glennie describes the Blue Orca as a “clean” vessel
that will collect fluids instead of discharging them
overboard and will use only chemicals that are
approved for the North Sea environment.
“With the Blue Orca, Baker Hughes will continue
to uphold our commitment to provide world-class
deepwater stimulation vessels to the major offshore
basins around the world,” adds Lindsay Link,
president of Pressure Pumping for Baker Hughes.
The target completion date in mid-2013 gives
Baker Hughes an opportunity to service other
customers with the vessel before the Maersk contract
starts in October 2013.
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